[preview screening] Game Night + Death Wish

As everyone knows, February is a very short month. It is usually also the busiest month for the Chinese, as the Lunar New Year commonly falls between late January to early February. This year, within the short 28 days of this month, I celebrated my Lunar New Year, Valentine's Day, and most importantly, my wedding solemnization!

I am really grateful that I got the opportunity to attend the movie preview screening of 'Game Night' and 'Death Wish'.

Without giving away too many spoilers, 'Game Night' is about a couple, Max, Annie, and their close friends who regularly have game nights that consists of quizzes and board games. One day, Max's brother comes to town, and due to their intense rivalry, things get heated up! Max hires an agency to fake a kidnapping/murder mystery party for the whole group to solve on the night he hosts their Game Night, and the film kicks it up a notch when it appears the protagonists get involved in a real crime!

 The movie is generally a comedy, but has elements of action, suspense and mystery. I thought that Rachel McAdams, who plays Annie, acted rather well in her role. I first got to know her from the teen comedy movie 'Mean Girls' which was released back in 2004. The rest of the cast was quite good too, especially the actor who played Gary, the creepy guy next door.

'Death Wish' is the latest vigilante action movie which based on the 1972 novel, and also a remark of the 1974 film of the same movie name. The new film moves the setting back to the original’s novel Chicago rather than the 1974 film in New York.

The movie starts off with Dr Paul Kersey, played by Bruce Willis who is a surgeon, and often sees city’s violence in the ER. He becomes obsessed with delivering vigilante justice to the perpetrators after a home invasion that results in the death of his wife and attack on his daughter. After his wife died, he feels that the police are incapable of punishing the perpetrators, and he begins to enforce his own way of justice by punishing criminals by gunning them down. This results in him being an anti-hero of sorts, with public opinion divided on whether he is a 'guardian angel' or being no better than the criminals that he kills.

After watching both movies, I personally prefer the movie, 'Game Night' to 'Death Wish', as the script was much better and entertaining. Bruce Willis's acting was pretty normal in the movie, but I guess you can only do so much with mediocre script.

Thanks once again for the tickets to the movie preview!